


Of Firs and Arteries

by letsdothepanic



Series: Pale Shelter Verse [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bring Back Black, Cross-posted on Dreamwidth, Emotional Sex, Happy Ending, M/M, Not Epilogue Compliant, Oral Sex, R/S Small Gifts 2018, Remus Lupin Lives, Rimming, Sirius Black Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-09-18 08:04:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16991160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsdothepanic/pseuds/letsdothepanic
Summary: After getting Sirius back, Remus just wants to know he's alive andthere.





	Of Firs and Arteries

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LuminousGloom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuminousGloom/gifts).



> Thank you, Gloom, for such an inspiring wish list! I've had this fic in my head from the moment I read your signup post and I hope I've done it justice! 
> 
> Another big thanks to ivy for the beta work & support ♥

“The sun would set so late down South this time of the year.”

Sirius’ voice was quiet, and Remus would not have heard him clearly, had he not been so close.

Remus had not heard Sirius open the creaky back door of their cottage, only the snow crunching under his feet as he approached. The snow covered the entirety of their garden that late in December. They had seen their flower bushes wilt and die once September had come and the weather had taken a turn for the worse. Fifteen kilometres or so was far enough from the next house that they got to use their wands freely when outside, but it was still too risky to keep their plants blooming all year long.

Remus didn’t mind it. By the time his birthday came around, the flower bushes would be blooming again. 

For the time being, he and Sirius had the fir trees. Resistant to the cold, they remained a rich shade of green against the fading grey light of the afternoon. The muggle woman who had sold them the little farm had mentioned something about the trees not being native to the Bowland Fells, about how the seeds must have carried from the nearby planted woodlands; but neither of them thought it a problem. The smell of the coniferous was fresh and earthy, and Remus didn’t notice he’d forgotten to renew the  _ Impervius  _ charm on his boots. 

His socks were damp, toes slowly going icy, but the cold was the last thing on his mind. 

“Hullo, you,” he smiled and accepted the steaming mug of tea that Sirius handed him, making him free to wrap both arms around Remus’ waist. Standing behind him, Sirius hooked his chin over Remus’ shoulder, chilly nose on his neck.

Remus didn’t ask further about ‘down South’. Sirius didn’t volunteer anything else, either. It had been sixteen years since Remus had gotten those letters delivered by big, tropical birds. By the time he had his partner nuzzling the curls on his temple, though, standing in the windy back garden of their own cottage, the letters were stored away in a shoebox. They were kept somewhere deep inside their wardrobe, along with other mementos from darker times. They had an owl for post.

“Thought I’d come fetch you before you froze your bum off.”

Sirius’ voice in his ear had done a better job warming him up than the sip from the tea mug, Remus thought, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. 

“So you were thinking about my bum, then.”

“Always.”

Remus laughed, his breath momentarily forming a small cloud in front of them. Sirius kissed his cheek before letting go. 

***

The sheep they passed by on the way back to the cottage did not belong to them. The animals tended to roam around a tad more than would be expected, but it made for the charm of the place. Sirius would chase them as Padfoot when Remus was having a bad day. It was a ridiculous scene, really, but definitely better than whatever went through his mind before full moons on long nights.

They had been on this sort of holiday for months, at that point. It was not hiding; neither of them would have called it so, at least. The cottage was connected to the Floo network and their trips to London were rather frequent. Sirius still couldn’t figure out why Harry would have chosen to live in Grimmauld of all places, but it was not his problem, Remus told him every time the subject came up. Harry had moved there before they got Sirius back, after all.

Remus didn’t think of the Department of Mysteries often; he wouldn’t let himself. His mind healer had told him it was fine to sometimes, but he still didn’t think he should. Count your blessings, Lupin, he told himself once again, taking a long draught from the citrusy, cinnamon flavoured tea in his mug. The spicy scent of it filled his lungs with warm energy, and Remus made a point of finishing it before it went cold. He reached for Sirius’ hand, next, and squeezed it tightly. It was warm and dry against his own cold one, and Remus loved him for it.

***

Remus’ boots were off less than a minute after they got to the cottage, instantly dropped in the kitchen along with his mug. They walked inside and climbed the stairs in comfortable silence, shoulders brushing as they made their way through the house. Remus’ bare feet were freezing, and it almost hurt to step on the heated hardwood floors of their home. Sirius was proud of the way he had worked through the muggle technology, replacing electrical wirings with magical fixtures here and there. 

Finally having sat down on the edge of their bed, Remus gestured at his toes and dried them off with a handy little warming charm.

“Show-off,” Sirius teased, using his wand to send Remus’ slippers over. After all this time, the berk still has a weak spot for wandless magic, Remus thought fondly, not bothering to put the slippers on.

“Pardon?” Remus asked with arched eyebrows, and lit a fire in the hearth with a snap of his fingers then, just for good measure. The bedroom was flooded with a deep, warm light. Outside, the snow had started falling again.

Sirius walked over to him, kneeling before Remus on the rug next to the bed. He leant up to leave a chaste kiss on Remus’ lips, earning himself a nip to his bearded chin and a recently warmed-up hand coming up to cup his jaw.

“I accused you of being a show-off. Insufferable, really,” Sirius told him with a smile, the corner of his eyes crinkling. Remus moved his hand to trace his cheekbone with a thumb, running the pads of his fingers over his partner’s forehead next. Sirius closed his eyes and let out a pleased sigh.

“You love it.” 

It was not a question. 

Not after all those years, it wasn’t. Not after everything they had gone through; after the things Remus wouldn’t want to list, even in his head. 

“Hush, now.” 

The corners of Sirius’ mouth tilted up and Remus couldn’t stop himself from thinking of the way his partner’s eyes gleamed. It must be the firelight, he argued to himself, leaning down to kiss the offending expression away from Sirius’ face.

They kissed slowly, those days. Their lips would move together with no hurry, though still as intensely as ever. They kissed until there was no more air to share, and both of Sirius’ hands were clinging to Remus’ hair, keeping him close. 

“You’ll ruin your old man knees like that,” Remus managed; breathily, teasing.

“Doesn’t matter.” Sirius shook his head, giving his hair one last gentle tug that left Remus hissing in delight, anticipation building.

He knew how this would go. His heartbeat was already thumping on his ears when Sirius’ hands started making their way lower, over his his chest and stomach, still covered by a thick woolen jumper. It was no surprise when Sirius’ fingers found his belt buckle, or the button on his old, worn jeans, but Remus gasped all the same. They would do this the muggle way, as of recently. No spells to vanish their clothes, no magical enhancements to their play. Remus had to lift his hips to get his trousers off, and almost kicked Sirius in the process.

They laughed. 

Sirius pressed his face against the inside of Remus’ thigh, and he was oh so interested already, half-hard inside his pants. Sirius’ mouth was warm against his skin, and the damp little kisses he left on his way in were punctuated with puffs of hot air and small words mumbled in their wake.

Remus was not laughing anymore. He took in a sharp breath when Sirius’ nose touched his tented underwear, grey eyes full of promise. 

“Go on,” he told him, and there was still a smile on Remus’ voice. It was playful, light. There was nothing urgent about the way Sirius mouthed at his hard prick, still covered by a layer of white cotton. He kissed him wantonly, and even after all those years, Remus wasn’t sure of what to do with his hands when his brain got foggy like that. Eventually, he opted for holding Sirius’ hair back for him, scooting to sit on the very edge of the bed.

“Fuck, Pads,” Remus groaned, caught between the urge to close his eyes and focus on the feeling, or the need to keep his gaze locked on Sirius’, who had not stopped looking at him from behind his lashes since he had started.

“Let me get this off for you,” Sirius said, after a light nip to Remus’s clothed shaft that sent a shiver down his spine. Sirius reached for his partner’s jumper, trying to pull it off along with his shirt and vest top. The cuffs of the button-down were too tight while still buttoned, and Remus got stuck.

He could hear Sirius sniggering, and stopped struggling. 

“Cheat!” Remus laughed when his hands were suddenly freed, the thrum of Sirius’ magic too familiar for him not to notice, and yanked his clothes over his head.

Remus’ mind took the complaint back the moment he could see again.

Sirius was standing stark naked in front of him, and he would have been embarrassed of the way it made him feel  _ hungry, _ if only he still had it in him to care about it at all. 

He remembered how thin Sirius’ ankles had looked, peeking from under a set of filthy wizard robes in the Shrieking Shack, back in ‘94. He remembered feeling like he would have broken him in two, had he squeezed him a little tighter; like his ribs would not have been able to take it. He remembered the sunken cheeks and the shadows under Sirius’ eyes and for a moment, it was all too much. 

Remus felt lucky to see all of that gone. He reached to touch Sirius’ thigh, and was infinitely grateful for the firm muscle there, for the smatter of dark hair and the way his partner felt solid and  _ alive  _ when he pulled him closer, wrapping both arms around his waist.

“Don’t you get soppy on me when I was about to suck your cock, Moony,” Sirius teased, as if reading his thoughts.

“I’m not,” Remus started to argue, pulling away to rest his cheek against a point where he could hear the blood pumping through Sirius’ _Aorta_ _abdominalis,_ sneakily letting his hands wander. He felt the low of Sirius’s back, the dips of two charming dimples and the location where the cleft of his arse began, letting out a content sigh.

If that had not been enough to know how  _ there _ Sirius was, indeed, the nudge of his hard cock against Remus’ collarbone would have certainly done the trick.

“Sop,” Sirius’ voice accused him again, and Remus turned to bite playfully at the sensitive spot just below his navel. Sucking in a sharp breath, Sirius pressed his erection against Remus once more, this time against his chin.

“Bed,” Remus’ tone changed, dropping down to a husky whisper.

Ushering Sirius around, Remus watched as he lay down on his back, head propped on a couple of pillows. 

“On your stomach, Pads.”

A shadow of a question passed through Sirius’ expression, but it only lasted a moment. Moving one of the pillows underneath his partner’s hips, Remus parted his legs carefully, taking a moment to position himself between them.

Working outside in the garden had left Sirius’ back and shoulders tanned in the summer, but after several months of rain and then snow, his skin was back to its usual pale shade, stretching smoothly over corded muscle and sharp bones. Remus couldn’t keep his hands from him any longer. Summoning the phial of oil from their nightstand, he uncapped it carefully, coating his palms with enough of the substance to make the glide easier as he ran his hands between Sirius’ shoulder blades, and down his spine. 

Remus worked the tension off his neck, felt the bumps of his ribs and secretly rejoiced at the way he could sense Sirius’ heartbeat there, too. It was hard not to match his small groans of pleasure, as every reaction he elicited out of Sirius seemed to shoot straight to his own groin.

“Moony,  _ please _ .”

Always the impatient one, Remus thought fondly, responding to Sirius’ pleading with a kiss to his tailbone. Splaying both palms on Sirius’ arse cheeks, Remus squeezed, kneading on them gently, enjoying the way Sirius was already holding on tightly to their crisp, white sheets.

“ _ Yes _ ,” he said simply, murmuring a delicate cleaning charm and watching as Sirius shivered underneath him, his magic washing over him. Satisfied with the effect of the incantation, Remus leant down to lick a broad stripe over Sirius’ hole. It was thrilling, the way it twitched under his tongue, the sensitive flesh all but fluttering in reaction to his touch. Remus was not sure of what he loved the most about this; the rich, tangy musk of Sirius’ skin he had grown so familiar to or how effectively the act worked to undo him. Or it was all of it at the same time, Remus supposed, closing his lips around Sirius’ rim, kissing him there with sloppy abandon, his own groans reverberating against soft, soft skin.

“F-fuck,  _ Remus _ , ye–” Sirius’ voice was breathy and broken already, and Remus took infinite pleasure in hearing him stutter, hearing him moan. He outright loved rubbing his scruffy cheek against Sirius’ most sensitive areas, unable to hold back a delighted laugh as he felt Sirius’ buttocks tremble under his fingers and strain with the effort it seemed to take to decide between pushing down into the pillow or back up against Remus’ face.

“Tell me what you want, love.”

A gasp was all Remus got in response, and it made his chest swell. I’ve got you, he wanted to say. I understand, he mouthed against Sirius’ hole, burying his face between his partner’s cheeks and feeling  _ himself  _ shiver as he pushed his tongue inside him, eyes squeezed shut.

Sirius’ hips kept on working against the pillow, into the mattress, and Remus knew he was close. Remus knew what it meant to have him clench around his tongue, suckling it in. He also recognised the tell-tale cry he heard soon after, muffled by the mattress underneath them and the curtain of Sirius’ hair that kept  Remus from seeing his face. Yet, he wouldn’t pull back until Sirius had stilled. 

Holding his cheeks apart, Remus lapped over his rim sweetly, kissed it with easy, pursed lips and blew cold air over the wet mess he had made. Sirius squirmed underneath him, and finally turned to pull him up, wiping at Remus’ spit-slick chin with the back of his hand before searing their mouths together.

***

Hours later, the snow was still falling heavily outside. The newscaster on the wireless had said something about a storm, earlier. Remus didn’t mind it, though. They had good wine to drink, plenty of firewood to burn and all the time in the world. 

But especially, he had Sirius’ hand carding through his hair and the most delightful place to lay his head on; ear right above Sirius’ navel, where his _Aorta_ _abdominalis_ pulsed steadily, reminding Remus that yes, he was very much solid and alive.


End file.
